Diet, Nutrition, Inflammation and Health

 

Diet and Inflammation Affects our Health

In our last blog, "What's Inflammation Got to Do With It?", we addressed chronic inflammation and how it leads to disease and health problems.  In upcoming issues, we will focus on lifestyle factors that affect inflammation.  We will address how to reduce chronic/systemic inflammation, relieve pain and improve health.  Today's topic is Diet and Nutrition.

 Your Bank Account
Let's compare the inflammation that affects our health to a bank account, and the different foods we eat and the lifestyle choices we make are either "deposits" or "withdrawals" from this bank account.  The level of  inflammation in our body is affected by each deposit or withdrawal we make.  Some foods are pro-inflammatory and others are anti-inflammatory.  The more we eat (deposit) anti-inflammatory foods, the healthier we will be.  Pro-inflammatory foods are like withdrawals which eventually lead to chronic inflammation and disease, depleting our health account.

So, what are the pro-inflammatory foods to avoid or limit? While not a complete list, pro-inflammatory foods include: refined sugar, refined grains, processed carbohydrates, grain flour products (breads), trans fats and refined Omega-6 oils (corn, safflower and sunflower oils). Consuming these foods will increase inflammation levels in the body, which results in withdrawals from your health bank account.

Anti-inflammatory foods include: vegetables, fruit, wild-caught fish, grass-fed meats, chicken, nuts and Omega-3 oils (olive, flax and coconut oils).  Consuming these foods will help to decrease inflammation levels resulting in deposits to your health bank account.

You can begin today to make changes to your diet that will have a positive impact on your health.  A great resource to expand on these ideas is "The Deflame Diet" by Dr. David Seaman.  This purpose of this newsletter is to provide an introduction to the topic of Diet and Nutrition and how it affects your health.  If you would like additional information, please contact our office at 919-790-2288.
In our next blog...Exercise to Reduce Inflammation